Good to have you with us. A tale of two pandemics in the United States. One vision presented by the president. The other by facts on the ground. This hour, the u. S. Case count stands at more than 3. 7 million. With more than 140,000 deaths. In california, los angeles reported the highest number of hospitalizations in a single day so far. And the mayor says he may issue new lockdown orders. Floridas intensive cares are filling up. Theres no more icu beds in at least 49 hospitals. But in an interview with fox news, President Donald Trump focused on one data point to the exclusion of all others and got to wrong. When you talk about mortality rates, i think its the opposite. I think by have one of the lowest mortality rates. Thats not true, sir. Were going to take a look. We had 900 deaths in a single day this week. Ready . Can you please get me the mortality rate . Kayleighs right here. I heard we had one of the lowest, maybe lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world. The u. S. Ranked seventh out of 20, according to john hopkins university. Worse than brazil or russia. On saturday, both North Carolina and georgia set new records for singleday case counts. The same day, arizona reported a record death toll, but in his interview, mr. Trump threatened funding for schools that dont reopen. Schools have to open. Young people have to go to school. And theres problems when you dont go to school, too, and theres going to be a funniding. Were not going to give them money if theyre not going to school. And mr. Trump dismissed questions about his previous statements that the virus would simply disappear. Ill be right eventually. I will be right eventually, you know, i said, its going to disappear. Ill say it again. Its going to disappear, and ill be right. Does that discredit you . I dont think so. I dont think so. You know why it doesnt discredit . Ive been right probably more than anybody else. Cnns Jeremy Diamond has more details of President Trumps interview. Reporter while coronavirus cases have been surging once again in the United States over the last month, month and a half, and yet President Trump seeps to still be denying the reality of the situation. The reality that cases are, indeed, surging, that new records are being broken in terms of new case numbers every week, sometimes multiple times a week. President trump in an interview on sunday instead focused much more on defending his administration, his handling of this pandemic, deflecting blame, and once again making false claims, including the repeatedly debunked claim that the rise in coronavirus cases is related to increased testing in the United States. You still talk about it as, quote, burning embers, but i want to put up a chart that shows where we are with the illness over the last four months. As you can see, we hit a peak here in april. 36,000 cases. Cases. A day. Yeah. Cases. Then it went down. And now since june, it has gone up, more than doubled. One day this week, 75,000 new cases. More than double. Chris, thats because we have great testing. Because we have the best testing in the world. If we didnt test, you wouldnt be able to show that chart. If we tested half as much, those numbers would be down. This isnt burning embers, sir, this is a forest fire. No, no, but i dont say. Flames, well put out the flames and put out in some cases burning embers. We have embers and we do have flames. Reporter now, the reality of the situation is that while testing has been up about 37 , cases of coronavirus in the United States are up 194 . And the gap in those two rates of increase is even more startling when you look at some of the hot spots like florida and arizona and texas. And yet President Trump, it seems, continues to make this false claim. It was just one of several from the president in this interview. He also tried to favorably compare the United States mortality rate to other countries. He also tried to compare the situation in the United States more favorably to whats happening in the European Union. Which has not seen this most recent surge of coronavirus cases like the United States. President trump was also busy trying to downplay the advice of some of the governments foremost Public Health experts. The president once again undermining the credibility of dr. Anthony fauci, even as he insisted that there is no campaign to undermine fauci. But, really, its about something broader because the president was also disagreeing repeatedly with the cdc, disagreeing with the notion put forward by the cdc director dr. Robert redfield that masks, if every american wore masks for the next four to eight weeks, coronavirus could be in much better shape in the United States. The president rejecting that advice out of hand and, again, just the latest instance of the president butting heads with the science. Jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. And florida is the new epicenter of the coronavirus in the u. S. The state reported more than 12,000 new cases on sunday. Cnns randi kaye has more now from west palm beach. Reporter more trouble in terms of numbers and coronavirus here in the state of florida. In the last 24 hours, another 12,478 new cases in the state. Now 350,000 cases statewide. Also, another 87 deaths. Bringing the total to just under 5,000 deaths across the state. Also, this is the fourth day this month that weve seen more than 12,000 cases in a single day reported of coronavirus here in the state of florida. Statewide, more than 9,000 people hospitalized. Those numbers do seem to be holding steady. In and miamidade, in southern florida, one of the hardesthit counties, still trouble with those icu beds. Now at 127 capacity, so they have no icu beds left to give. In fact, in miamidade, more than 2,000 people are hospitalized with covid19. 507 patients in the icu and 286 patients on ventilators. Also, dozens of hospitals, close to 50 hospitals across the state are also without any icu beds. So this is certainly a problem here in the state of florida. On a bright note, the governor has secured about 30,000 vials of remdesivir, a proven treatment for covid19. Those should be arriving just hours from now. Those supplies will go directly to the hospitals. He went to the white house seeking that supply, apparently it will be coming here in just the next few hours or days ahead. All right. Back to you. And joining me now from los angeles, the chief medical officer at the university of southern californias verdugo hills hospital. Thank you, doctor, and for all that you do. Thank you for having me, rosemary. Now, President Trump is still repeating his false claim that an increase in testing is whats causing the spike in cases across this country. In fact, testing is up 37 , but cases are up 194 . So the president is very wrong on that issue. What do you believe is behind this surge in cases . And can this trend be turned around before we hit the flu season . Well, look, i have to always start by being positive because there is absolutely no point in being negative as a physician and as a chief medical officer in my position. We have to believe that we can turn the train around. But its very obvious why this is occurring. Its people are unmasked and they are socializing, not social distancing and spreading the virus. The number of tests youre taking does increase the number of positives, but thats not what were talking about. Please, its very simple. Its the percent that are positive is going up. If i shoot a ball ten times and i make five shots, and if now i shoot 100 shots, the same percentage would be 50, but thats not the case. The percent is going up. We are now turning the 50 into 70, 80, 90, and this is truly a disaster. That is really sobering. And, doctor, President Trump also falsely claims that other nations with fewer cases dont do enough testing. Thats his reasoning there. And says the u. S. Is the envy of the world due to its testing levels, but right now, unfortunately, the u. S. Only leads the world in its death toll and its cases, and all this as the president calls this countries amost trust countrys most trusted dr. , anthony fauci, a little bit of an alarmist as cases are spiking and hospitalizations are surging, should we be alarmed . Are you alarmed . Yes. Plain and simple. Im not panicking. Im not acting irrationally, but im alarmed. If i see something that is going to happen that is going to provide a negative outcome, i have to react. I have to have an alarm that goes off. So if i see a train thats going to crash into a house, i would be alarmed. Look, closing your eyes to this doesnt mean it goes away. This problem is only growing. I dont know how many hundreds of thousands of people have to die before we really wake up. The number of people are that are getting infected is increasing. And, yes, a small percentage died. But what is one life . What is ten lives . What are 100 lives . Usually for most they would be human to the fact that they would feel when somebody is saying that theyre dying. But what if its your Family Member . Will that make the difference . Come on. We really need to wake up here. We got to stop the charades. And, doctor, what are you seeing in your hospital . Because you are treating covid19 patients there. What is their main reason for for getting infected . And talk to us about what you deal with day to day. Well, the reason people are getting infected is because they are now not staying at home and theyre out. And in the process of getting out, we could have done it the right way, and, unfortunately, many people politicized it to the point where wearing a mask became a right. And it became something that was not breakfasted. Were telling you to wear a mask not because of the Political Party youre in. Were asking you to wear a mask because its the right thing to do to protect yourself and your loved ones. And what has happened is because of the many reasons people got out and socialized. They did not distance themselves physically from others. They did not mask. They did not sanitize. They got infected and continued to spread. Remember, one person will infect 1,000 people in one month. Heres just an alarming statistic. Lets just step back. The first week of february was the first positive case, the first death in the u. S. February were only a few months away from that day and look at the state that were in. Where do we think this is headed . The vaccine is not going to be around any time soon. If were not going to come together and do the right thing, were headed for disaster. We have to look at the numbers. Numbers dont lie. Doctor, a south korean study has found that older kids spread the coronavirus just as much as adults do. That goes against the federal governments push to open schools. In the midst of this spike in cases. Their justification is that kids dont spread this virus as much as adults do. Clearly, thats not the case. If were to believe this new study. Talk to us about your response to that because there is this push by the federal government, even a threat from President Trump, that he will take funds away, cut funds to schools that dont open up classrooms and take and take kid in. Rosemary, what you said was exactly true. Look, everybody, every parent wants to open schools. Thats a thats a nobrainer, but we cant open schools in the current situation. Numbers are if we have a handle of this pandemic, then we can gradually open schools in a safe manner. But when were in the heat of the battle, when the numbers are increasing, how can we open our schools . It makes no sense. Look, to Start Talking about whether young people transmit it more or less, those things are just noise. Understand the fact that you cant open anything, whether its a school or its a business, if youre in the midst of numbers going up. So its plain and simple. Lets get a handle on this. Lets control it. Lets get back to where we were and then start anew the right way. Masking, distancing, and sanitizing, and gradually focus if we just fight to open schools, its not just gonna happen because youre fighting for it. You got to do the right thing. Dont think you can have your dessert if you havent eaten your meal. We got to put the work in to be able to reap the rewards of being able to open our schools again. Do the right thing, people. Use your reason. This is doable, but not by just forcing it or mandating it. You got to do the right thing. Powerful message there. Doctor, thank you so much. And for all that you do. We appreciate it. Thank you. And the u. S. Is now on another travel ban list. The bahamas will be closing its borders to visitors from the United States and other coronavirus hot spots. After a surge of cases in the country. The European Union has already banned u. S. Travellers. Cnns Patrick Oppmann has more now from havana. Reporter the bahamian government on sunday said it will be closing borders with the United States and other coronavirus hot spots to stem the spread of the virus on those islands. Bahamian Prime Minister made the announcement on a National Televised address and acknowledged that while the closure will hurt the because mass, which depends on tourism from the United States, florida in particular, but he said that continuing to remain open will put bahamian lives at risk. The bahamas has only been open since july 1st. Before then the islands had been closed down to international tourism. Its since reopening. Even the visitors were required to have coronavirus negative tests within ten days of traveling. All the same, though, the bahamas says they have seen a spike in cases. And starting on wednesday, will only accept visitors coming from canada, the United Kingdom and the europe union who can show that they have been tested and tested negatively in the previous ten days. This closure will have a big impact on the economy. It will probably close cause many businesses, hotels and restaurants dependent on tourism to once again close. Some of these have just opened in the last several days. But the Prime Minister said that if they had not closed, if they had not announced this closure, that the bahamas was facing, in his words, being overrun with the coronavirus. Patrick oppmann, cnn, havana. And hong kong is tightening social distancing measures further. After recording its highest daily increase in coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. More than 100 new infections were confirmed sunday. The surge is prompting city authorities to expand the mandatory use of face masks to include all enclosed public places. And all nonessential civil workers are being told to work from home for the coming week. Cnns will ripley is in hong kong. He joins us now live. Good to see you, will. So, hong kongs chief executive carrie lam calls the situation critical. How are people there responding to her stricter social distancing measures and whats the scene on the streets there . Reporter well, i was just out on the streets within the last couple of hours, rosemary, and its incredible how normal things feel, except for the fact that everybody is wearing a face mask. I was out for a couple of hours. Didnt see one person not wearing a mask in central hong kong. Which shows that the government messaging seems to be working. Also probably the fact that you can be fined if youre in certain areas like public transit, you know, and youre not wearing a mask and somebody catches you. You could have to pay several hundred dollars. You know, you look at the number of cases here in hong kong, within the next couple of days, if the daily numbers are consistent with the weekend, which is, you know, around 100 cases or more every day. By the way, the first time hong kongs hit 100 cases per day since the start of this pandemic. We should hit 2,000 mark in the terms of total cases since the pandemic began in a day or two. 2,000 cases total for this city and youre talk talking about a dozen deaths so far. Four of them have been in the last week and a half or so. A lot of cities will be thrilled to have this kind of number. Hong kong not at all. Listen to the chief executive carrie lam. Translator the situation is really critical, and there is no sign the situation is being brought under control. Thats why this morning ive called a high meeting level to consider our response, and we know that later on today with these latest figures weve announced by the center for Health Protection there would be more than 100 confirmed cases. That is a singleday high since the start of the epidemic, and we believe the public will be very much concerned and worried. Reporter and people really are concerned. You know, talking over the weekend with friends, particularly locals who were here during the sars outbreak more than 15 years ago, and lived with the terror of hundreds of people in hong kong dying from sars. This city has been very proactive in the way it has handled covid19. Shutting down its borders early, taking these social distancing measures very seriously. Shutting down businesses even with fewer cases than what were seeing right now. And i think the reason, rosemary, hong kong continues to have such a low number is because they are taking things so seriously right off the bat. They dont want to see 100 cases per day turn into 200 or 500. Because as it is right now, more about 75 of the covid19 wards in the city are full. So, you only have 25 , 35 capacity remaining. If you start getting a lot more cases and a lot more people who need to be hospitalized, you could run out of hospital beds e to have more in place by the end of the week. They are responding quickly. 2,000 cases there. Nearly 4 million in the United States. The difference in response is just astounding. Cnns will ripley joining us live from hong kong. Many thanks. And still ahead, a cnn exclusive. We take you inside russias Coronavirus Vaccine lab. Moscow claims its near a breakthrough. Why the speed of the countrys progress is r