holiday weekend. >> live from cnn center, this is "cnn newsroom." with robyn curnow. this is cnn breaking news. we begin with this breaking news. as president donald trump continues his efforts to somehow overturn his election defeat, he has now forced what will essentially be a third count of the presidential ballots here in georgia. mr. trump got the recount because joe biden's margin of victory in the state was less than 0.5%. but georgia had already audited the presidential vote, so this will be the third time around at taxpayer expense. the biden campaign says the votes will be the sim and there's no reason to believe there are widespread errors or fraud, and that the trump campaign has no evidence to back up its baseless claims. also, things did not go president trump's way in the state of pennsylvania on saturday, far from it. justice correspondent jessica schneider has that story. >> reporter: a federal judge in pennsylvania completely tearing apart the trump legal strategy that was spearheaded by rudy giuliani. the federal judge in pennsylvania, matthew brand, he's a longtime republican, a president obama appointee, however. he called this latest case he has dismissed like frankenstein's monster, haphazardly stitched together. the judge, matthew brand, tearing apart the claims by the trump team that they wanted to invalidate the vote in pennsylvania and throw out nearly 7 million votes. the judge in this case saying this. one might expect that when seeking such a startling on august are outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption. that has not happened. instead, this court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit, and speculative accusations unpled in the operative complaint, and unsupported by evidence. now this judge was very skeptical during the hearing, but he completely tore the trump legal arguments apart. now this was really the last remaining case in a crucial swing state that could have potentially affected any votes. really, at this point the trump team's legal strategy is crumbling before our eyes. they really don't have any major cases left, even despite the fact that on saturday, more lawsuits were filed in state court looking to invalidate the vote and stop the certification. the certification is set to happen in pennsylvania on monday. it is also set for monday in michigan, where the trump team has shifted from a legal strategy to a political pressure campaign. they are putting pressure on some of the republican political leaders there, and now there is concern that with a state board of canvassers meeting on monday, they could actually deadlock. it is a four-member board, two republicans, two democrats. if there is a 2-2 split, this could actually end up in the courts or the governor of michigan, gretchen whitmer, should could step in to replace maybe those noncompliant board members. so there is a lot at stake in the coming days but it could be game over when these votes are certified in the coming days and that really could be the end for the trump team. jessica schneider, cnn, washington. >> david sanger joins me from washington, cnn political analyst, national security correspondent for "the new york times." david, wonderful to see you. you wrote in the "new york times" just in the last few days that the language in the legal challenges we've seen to these election results are unparalleled in american history. are we seeing a very audacious use of political force here? or is this just a fruitless last gasp by the outgoing president? >> well, it is an audacious use of political force that is looking increasingly like it will be a fruitless last gasp. we shouldn't forget here, robyn, how unusual this is for the american system. and in that same article, i compared it to the most recent time that a presidential election was thrown to the house of representatives, to congress. that was 1876. even in that case, there was real dispute that everybody agreed was a real dispute about the outcome of the vote in three states. what's remarkable here is there is no real dispute about the outcome. they've done audits and recounts, and they've all come out within a few votes of where the original was. it's very clear that joe biden won this by about 6 million popular votes. and the way things are breaking out right now, he has 306 electoral votes, which if it sounds like a familiar number is exactly the number that donald trump had when he beat hillary clinton four years ago. and that, the president told us, was one of the great landslides of american history. but this one, we're told, was supposed to be so close that it actually was stolen from him. >> so when you look at the language in the tweets and the legal challenges, you say in your piece that the president's attempts of succeeding to overturn the results are somewhere between remote and impossible. yet is there still a lot of widespread alarm? could he still somehow pull some electoral switch here? >> if he's got, at least so far, a two-part strategy. part one was go to the courts and see if you could invalidate the ballots state by state. that has failed. i think today he lost his 32nd or 33rd court challenge of some kind. he's won about two of them on small numbers of ballots. part two was to go see if they could go strong-arm the legislators in michigan, perhaps, places like arizona or georgia, maybe pennsylvania, to go come up with an alternative slate of electors. in other words, to ignore what the voters said and turn out another slate. that also looks to be failing. so then the question is, does he have some plan "c" after that? we just don't know the answer. >> it's kind of incredible that we're having this conversation, though, that the u.s. president seems to have actively tried to take away, strip the votes of mr. biden, who won, by pressuring lawmakers or the courts. i covered many elections in africa, for example. it doesn't seem to be any concern about the underlying threat that this possibly poses to the very foundation of democracy. and i don't think i'm overstating this, am i? >> no, i don't think you are. something we have in common, we were both foreign correspondents, just on different sides of the globe. i was in asia for many years. and you in africa. and we both covered our fair share of cases where it looked like somebody was coming in to try to go fix the vote. what's remarkable here is that we've had a lot of people surrounding president trump, many of his own party, saying, well, let's just humor him, let him exhaust his legal rights. and he certainly did have legal rights to go challenge the ballots. but now that those challenges have fallen apart, we don't see them standing up and saying, okay, so it's time now to just everyone acknowledge that joe biden is going to get inaugurated on january 20th and move toward a serious transition and a moment of great peril, largely because of coronavirus, but not only because of coronavirus. and that's what we're not hearing. that's what's really remarkable about this. >> what happens in the coming weeks? what happens on the 19th of january? what game plan? what exit strategy are we potentially looking at here? is there a plan to kick the president out of the white house? i'm being dramatic, but how does this play out? it's all uncharted territory. >> it is uncharted. we have some dates coming up before that. on december 14th, the electors meet in each of their state capitols and declare their slates. at that moment, this is pretty well done. they then forward it to congress, and congress is supposed to ratify it on january 6th. so if the president can't come up with a way for alternative slates to be forwarded to congress, then he's really got no way forward that is visible to all of us. and by january 6th, there would be a declaration. of course, that's fully two weeks before the inauguration. i don't think the president is going to hole up in the white house. i suspect that he will go down to mar-a-lago sometime around the holidays. i wouldn't be shocked if he just sort of stayed there and ran the country from there. it's certainly happened before. just not be around when january 20th came. i also wouldn't be surprised if he did some counter programming on january 20th. held a rally, made the argument that he really should be in the midst of his second term, convince some of his greatest supporters that in fact he is sort of running the country, even if he's doing it from afar. i could imagine any number of those scenarios to stay relevant, perhaps to get his own media outlet of some kind, and to be part of the continuing part of the conversation. i think he's going to find it increasingly difficult, because people aren't going to pay as much attention to those tweets as they do when they're coming out of the white house. >> david sanger, always good to speak to you and get your perspective, thanks so much. after the pennsylvania decision came down, a state republican senator congratulated mr. biden as president-elect. pat toomey said, with today's decision by judge matthew brand, a long-time conservative republican who i know to be a fair and unbiased jurist to dismiss the trump campaign's lawsuit, president trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the results of the presidential race in pennsylvania. these developments, together with the outcomes in the rest of the nation, confirm that joe biden won the 2020 election and will become the 46th president of the united states. the trump white house is still denying president-elect joe biden and his team access to critical resources and briefings but mr. biden is remaining calm and moving forward. arlette saenz is covering the transition. >> reporter: president-elect joe biden's team welcomed the decision from a federal judge to dismiss the trump campaign's lawsuit in pennsylvania. as the biden team argues that it backs up their argument that there are no legal challenges that the president can credibly wage in order to change the results of this election. a spokesperson for joe biden, mike guinn, saying yet another court has rejected trump and giuliani's baseless claims of voter fraud and their appalling assault on our democracy. the judge's ruling couldn't be clearer. our people, laws and institutions demand more and our country will not tolerate trump's attempts to reverse the results of an election that he decisively lost. biden's team has long argued that these lawsuits and legal challenges from the president are simply political theater and they don't believe anything credible can actually be raised to change the outcome of the election. but they have warned that these type of challenges are threatening to american democracy, but they ultimately believe that this election is over and the results will stand. biden is pushing forward with his transition even as the gsa has yet to ascertain him as the president-elect. biden has been convening his own teams of experts and also holding briefings with people as they are gathering more information about how to proceed heading into january. and biden is also building out not just his white house staff but also looking at his cabinet decisions. and the president-elect has sped up his timeline for announcing his first cabinet picks with the possibility of the first nominees coming at the start of the week. arlette saenz, cnn, wilmington, delaware. also breaking this hour, yet another prominent republican has tested positive for coronavirus. senator kelly loeffler of georgia is in the midst of a heated runoff election that could determine the balance of power in the u.s. senate. she tested positive on friday. another test on saturday came back as inconclusive. she was with vice president mike pence at campaign events on friday along with the other republican senator from georgia, david purdue. loeffler's office says she does not have symptoms and is quarantining until retesting is conclusive one way or the other. no word yet if mr. pence or mr. purdue will do the same. still ahead here on cnn, u.s. president donald trump misses a g20 session about the pandemic to go golfing. we'll talk it over with a member of joe biden's coronavirus advisory board. long lines and new records. we'll take you to california as it sees an alarming surge in virus cases. our skin... ...tells a story ...that deserves... -the best care. dove body wash's new formula works with your skin... ...for lasting care. so your skin... ...can keep telling stories... ...beautifully. new dove body wash proven lasting care for the skin you live in. tonight...i'll be eating cheesy cauliflower pizza new dove body wash proven lasting care with extra broccolini. my tuuuurrrrn! tonight...i'll be eating cheesy cauliflower pizza and yummy broccolini! 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"there's greatness in you." ♪ i'm a fighter and i'm fighting for those students that deserve a better future. i'm a fhi mr. charles,fighting fowe made you dinner. ahh, thank you! ready to eat? yes i am! when panhe doesn't justs mmake a pizza. he uses fresh, clean ingredients to make a masterpiece. taste our delicious new flatbread pizzas today. panera. welcome back. it's 18 minutes past the hour. a troubling marker for the country worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic. the u.s. now surpassing more than 12 million known cases on saturday. that's according to johns hopkins university. remember it hit 11 million cases just last sunday. no other country has anywhere near that many confirmed cases. the increases are rapid with many states shattering daily records. the nation as a whole has seen more than 100,000 new cases a day for 19 straight days. making matters worse, it's just four days before thanksgiving. millions of people often travel to see loved ones. the cdc is urging them to stay at home and celebrate the holiday with a virtual gathering. as you can see from these images, that advice is falling on deaf ears for many americans. you don't hear much about any of this from the president, donald trump. he's refusing to coordinate with the incoming biden administration, spending much of saturday golfing and spreading baseless election conspiracies. dr. celine galder joins me from new york, member of the biden-harris covid advisory board. the numbers are overwhelming. as you look ahead to january when the biden administration takes office, what is the one thing you think needs to be done? >> well, i think the one thing that needs to be done is something that needs to be done now. not wait until january 20th. which is to pass a stimulus package. the prior stimulus support to help people with the economic pain and social pain of the pandemic, that support is about to run out. and it's really hard to ask people to abide by public health interventions, restrictions, when they may not see the direct impact on their own lives. maybe you're a young 20-something who is at relatively low risk for severe disease, but you are out of work. and so we need to be addressing their concerns as well. and that starts with a stimulus package. unfortunately, senator mcconnell, the senate majority leader in congress, has been holding up that bill. but that really needs to be done now and not wait until january 20th. >> we're seeing images of people at airports going on thanksgiving trips, long lines, not a lot of social distancing. and also not a lot listening to the warnings that folks should perhaps just stay at home this year. we know there's christmas and the delayed effects of these holidays will certainly hit just as mr. biden takes office in mid-january. how concerned are you about images like this? >> i am really, really worried. because i know many hospitals across the country are already at capacity. and this is essentially pouring fuel on -- gasoline on a fire. this is going to make what is already accelerating exponential spread of the virus even worse. and so we are going to see hospitals overrun before too long, and this is precisely going to hit when hospitals are understaffed, when a lot of their doctors and nurses are on holidays themselves. so we have a skeleton crew in the hospital. so this is going to be happening after transmission related to thanksgiving. those cases will be in the hospital over christmas. and i myself am going to be in the hospital working over new year's. i am very concerned about the fact that we'll be extremely understaffed at that time. >> we also saw today the president playing golf while world leaders were discussing covid preparedness at the g20. what message did that send? >> to me, that is turning your back on the american people. he has not been a leader throughout this entire pandemic. has not risen to the occasion to unite the american people against a common threat. and this is really more you could say business as usual for this administration, which is not to provide leadership in a moment of crisis. >> are you able to work around the limits being placed on you by the trump administration? can you informally work with some of the outgoing members of his covid team? has there been some sort of reach-out, outreach to you, to create some sort of transition on the covid plans? >> we've actually been counseled not to try to back channel. the team really wants to do everything by the books, above-board. what we can do is work with other stakeholders outside of the federal government. so that includes working with state and local government, that includes working with the private sector. whether that be pharmaceutical companies or the big pharmacy chains who will be helping us with distribution of vaccines and therapeutics. but it's still trying to patch together, piecemeal together, information and collaboration which really this should be done in a coordinated way with the current administration. >> so what does it make you feel to know that you're literally going to be going in cold, in january? >> i mean, this is lieaping fro one speeding train to another. this is a serious indiana jones move we're being asked to make in the middle of a national -- a global crisis. this is really scary. we are going to do our best. we are professionals, we are experts in our fields. all of us on the advisory board have dealt with these kinds of crises in the past. but the kind of obstruction that we're dealing with is really unprecedented, and it's really quite frightening. >> thank you very much for joining us. good luck. >> thank you, we'll need it. california is among the states seeing dramatic surges. testing is in such high demand we're seeing sights like this, lines of cars in los angeles stretching on and on. restrictions have been tightened, and so far that hasn't stopped the uptick. paul vercammen now reports. >> reporter: just a dramatic u-turn in california which seemed to be doing so well with its covid-19 numbers just a few weeks ago. now 15,000 cases and counting in one day in the state, an all-time record. so they are battling this on a couple of different fronts. first off, contact tracing and testing here at dodger stadium. 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 people tested per day. they're also being very aggressive in some new roll-backs, if you will, new restrictions. a curfew has been invoked in most of california that forbids people from gathering in large clusters from 10:00 at night to 5:00 in the morning. this is very much aimed at young people. what they don't want is people getting together at their local watering hole or restaurant or in a park and being out in those early hours. you can, however, go out and walk your dog or drive to a friend's house, go to the grocery store. but this is very much aimed at reducing the number of large groups that seem to be going out at times in california against the wishes of public health officials. reporting from los angeles, i'm paul vercammen, now back to you. coming up here on cnn, health warnings? what health warnings? the surprising number of americans traveling this weekend despite pleas from doctors to stay at home. even countries that don't celebrate are urging people to stay at home as well. covid cases are not just surging here in the u.s. but europe as well. let's see what you've got, oculus... ... whoa! ... someone please help! of course. you're tenacious, i'll give you that! 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(camera clicks) ♪ watch what i do ♪ i see you looking ♪ watch what i ... do! welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. it's 30 minutes past the hour. thanks for joining me. i'm robyn curnow and this is cnn. so as the u.s. tops another sad and staggering number of coronavirus cases, another holiday threatens to boost covid spread even more. for weeks now, public health experts have been warning americans to stay home this thanksgiving. the message does not appear to be getting through. the transportation security administration screened more than 1 million people at u.s. airports on friday. airlines say they're bracing for their busiest week since the pandemic started. ev vin mac mora santora has more from new york. >> reporter: saturday, researchers at johns hopkins university reported the united states has passed 12 million cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began. it's a number that continues to rise. there have been 19 straight days of more than 100,000 new cases in this country. what scares public health experts is this surge is coming just at the beginning of the holiday travel season. here at jfk airport in new york things are quiet but other airports in the country saw big crowds. like this crowd at phoenix sky harbor airport on friday. public health experts worry those big numbers at the airport, people moving from one place to another and congregating before moving back where they started from, is pretty much the worst-case scenario in a surging pandemic. they're begging americans to make the hard choice not to travel this holiday season. evan mcmorris santoro, cnn, new york. >> we are fast approaching 60 million covid cases worldwide according to johns hopkins university. what's driving that surge isn't just the u.s. but europe as well. countries there struggling with europe's second wave the last few weeks. they might be doing a little better now, but others are still overwhelmed with new patients. germany was seen as a model for others to follow during the first wave, but on friday the country broke itsal all-time case record. germany is dealing with much more cases than in the spring. in a virtual g20 summit, vladimir putin said russia is prepared to provide its coronavirus vaccine to other countries as russia reports a record high of new daily cases as well. british prime minister johnson is set to announce england's lockdown will end december 2nd but downing street says more areas will likely be placed into higher alert levels to try and keep the virus under control. anna stewart joins me live from london with more on all of that. anna, what can you tell us? >> reporter: while cases appear to be leveling off in the uk, that is the good news, and the lockdown for england is set to finish on december 2nd, we've been under lockdown a little over two weeks. however, when we emerge from lockdown, it won't be back to normal, it will be back into the regional three-tiered system, and they're expecting to have stricter measures within those tiers and more regions around england are likely to be in the higher level. this is part of the government's so-called winter plan. it's being discussed by ministers today and will be presented in parliament tomorrow. part of the plan is possibly the bit that we're looking for, what happens at christmas? there's an expectation that perhaps restrictions could be eased, at least for a few days, to allow families to meet and gather. but of course that comes at a huge risk. this is an issue all countries around the world are facing, what to do about big national holidays, particularly u.s. for the u.s., thanksgiving is days away. going home for the holidays. it's what the cdc advises against this thanksgiving. crowded airports, people mingling from different households. it's a perfect way for a virus to travel, too. but the warning isn't enough to ground some passengers. >> planes are safe. you know. they sanitize everything. you've got to live your life, at the end of the day. >> reporter: but in many places the concern is saving lives. as many governments reimpose restrictions and coronavirus cases reach alarming levels. on monday, toronto, canada's most populous city, will go on lockdown for nearly a month. that means outdoor gatherings will be limited to 10 people. restaurants, curbside or delivery only. grocery stores can only operate at half capacity. canadian prime minister justin trudeau appealed for people to stay at home. >> if you were planning to see friends this weekend, maybe don't. there was a birthday party or a gathering for dinner you were thinking about doing? don't do it. >> reporter: a similar message in iran where the deputy health minister says family gatherings are the main cause of infections. the country recently closed nonessential businesses in 160 towns and cities. but some residents say people will continue to gather. >> translator: no matter how much the government imposes restrictions, people do not comply. it's useless. >> reporter: in new delhi, india, not complying comes with a cost. the government has increased fines there, from 500 to 2,000 rupees, about $27, for those who don't wear masks. cases in brazil are once again on the rise, passing the 6 million mark after infections steadily declined since their peak in the summer. officials say the surge is fueled by people out and about. in some cities, packing into public places at pre-pandemic levels. russian president vladimir putin said he will supply the sputnik 5 vaccine to countries that need it. that hope perhaps too far down the road with the wave of infections sweeping the world right now. here in europe, the second wave of coronavirus has been utterly devastating. lockdowns have been severe. there are a few signs of improvement, for instance, in france and here in the uk, where cases do appear to be leveling off. but as we approach the christmas season, as we look at perhaps people wanting to gather and a relaxing of restrictions, or people just flouting those restrictions, the big risk that is we see cases of the virus rise again. >> indeed. thanks so much, anna stewart live in london. day two of the g20 virtual summit gets under way in just a few hours' time. leaders of the 20 biggest economies are focused mainly on the coronavirus pandemic. we'll get a live report from saudi arabia after the break. a cnn investigation uncovering facts around a deadly protest in nigeria. hear what the nigerian army is admitting. ♪ you can count on me ♪ i'll be home for christmas ♪ if only in my dreams ♪ to use your vision benefits ♪ before the year's up. this is us making sure you don't. use 'em before you lose 'em, backed by our 100-day guarantee!! visionworks. see the difference. when panhe doesn't justs mmake a pizza. he uses fresh, clean ingredients to make a masterpiece. taste our delicious new flatbread pizzas today. panera. ♪ i'm robyn curnow. thanks so much for joining me live from atlanta. the g20 virtual summit kicked off on saturday. not surprisingly, the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide, is certainly dominating this meeting. even though the u.s. has recorded more cases and deaths than any other country, president trump touted the u.s. response to the crisis. and then president trump went golfing. since the start of the pandemic, he has publicly downplayed its severity, privately, though, he acknowledged during the early days how serious a threat it was. nic robertson joins me from saudi arabia with more on this virtual summit. nic, hi, good to see you. give us some sense of how mr. trump's appearance or perhaps nonappearance at some of these key meetings has played out there. >> reporter: i have to say it's incredibly hard to judge how it actually played out, because the white house, unlike, say, 10 downing street or the president of turkey's video statement was released, president putin's video statement was released, the white house didn't release a statement, it gave a readout, how strongly president trump tackled coronavirus, how well they were doing developing vaccines, how well the u.s. economy was doing. that language is really out of kilter with what we heard from the other leaders, the ones i've named, as well the european commission president, all talking about working together, the importance of working together, unity, a unified approach. i think some of the real keys here to how president trump's speech may have gone down, the words that the king in his opening statement, the king spoke again about the importance of working together. he did say that these g20 nations, $11 trillion have been pumped into their economies to help support the global economies. he spoke about the importance of the world trade organizations. one of the fundamentals of this g conserve 20 is to make sure the world trade organization is strong enough to deal with future pandemics. president trump has been against that multinational institution. it was interesting to hear as well from not only the turkish president but from the investments minister in saudi arabia outlining that there was no leadership around the world when it was needed on the pandemic. and the g20 was the solution. he said that some leaders -- again, he seemed to be pointing a finger without saying it, president trump had turned toward nationalism, turned inward. i think the real message to president trump from these world leaders is, thank you so much, good-bye, don't i let the door hit you on the way out. he has been from the outset out of kilter and really what the message you're getting from here is, try to rebuild those global institutions that are absolutely vital, that he's been so opposed to during his administration. >> and then what do you make of the fact that mike pompeo is barely there on the ground? you talk about the attitudes towards some of the leaders towards this president, but also, what are you getting in terms of attitudes towards the foreign policy that is on its way out, potentially? >> reporter: you know, i think you've nailed it there. it's on the way out, isn't it? it does seem to be the message that secretary of state mike pompeo is getting. we don't know the details of what he's achieved in closed-door meetings in israel, united arab emirates, qatar yesterday. but his meetings here in saudi, from what we understand at the moment, will be relatively short. he'll be on the ground for a relatively short period of time. much shorter, it has to be said, than what was originally anticipated. significantly shorter. you know, that speaks to the secretary of state not being able to bring some multiple threads from different conversations in the region together and stitch them into something here in saudi arabia. we know the saudis have been under huge pressure from president trump to have open relations with israel. that doesn't seem to be in the offing at the moment. i think the message is to secretary of state mike pompeo, whatever you've been trying, well and good, but your day is done, we're now looking ahead to the presidency of president-elect joe biden. >> okay, thanks for that. live from saudi arabia, nic robertson and his team, appreciate it. a cnn investigation has shed new light on a deadly anti-police brutality protest in nigeria. soldiers and police allegedly moved in on unarmed protesters in lagos and fired shots into the ground. the nigerian army denied the accusation. now they're admitting to having live rounds at the protest. >> reporter: the nigerian army admitted at a panel of inquiry that soldiers were given both live and blank bullets on october 20th. the admission seems to confirm a key finding of our cnn investigation into the shooting. >> the shooters will be given both live and blank bullets. in this particular case, we saw that these protests had been infiltrated by some hoodlums. you had peaceful protesters, no doubt. but there were also the hoodlums who sought to take advantage. that is why they were armed with blank bullets in addition to the live military. >> this is the first time the nigerian army has admitted having live rounds. the army's statement also contradicts previous statements about the incident, including from brigadier taiwo himself, who told the judicial panel previously that the soldiers were firing in the air and firing blank ammunition. the cnn investigation included evidence that bullet casings from the scene matched those used by the nigerian army when shooting live rounds, according to current and former nigerian military officials. in addition, two ballistics experts confirmed to cnn the shape of the bullet casings indicate they used live rounds, which contradicts the army's previous claim they fired blanks. cnn's report was based on testimony from dozens of witnesses and photos and video obtained and geolocated by cnn. the nigerian army did not respond to numerous requests for comment prior to the broadcast and publication of cnn's story. this admission by nigeria that live rounds were deployed is yet another in a series of constantly changing narratives as to what happened on october 20th where protesters had gathered to demonstrate against police brutality. thursday, minister for information and culture hamed said the military fired blank ammunition in the area. he dismissed the cnn investigation as fake news and misinformation. cnn stands by our reporting. nima elbagir, cnn. coming up, college students across the u.s. are heading home for thanksgiving despite warnings not to travel. what some schools are actually doing for those who leave. tep. swipe, lift, spin, dry. slam, pan, still...fresh move, move, move, move aaaaand still fresh. degree. ultimate freshness activated when you move. our flight is early tomorrow. and it's a long flight too. once we get there, we will need... buttercup! ♪ it's amazing. new revitalift night serum with pure retinol our 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[phone rings] "sore throat pain? try new vicks vapocool drops in honey lemon chill for a fast-acting rush of relief like you've never tasted in... ♪ honey lemon ahh woo vicks vapocool drops now in honey lemon chill for college students traveling home for thanksgiving, there has become an added risk, potentially spreading the coronavirus unknowingly. cnn's bianna golodryga explains what some colleges are doing to mitigate that risk as students travel to and from campus over the holiday break. >> students come all through the day by alphabetical order and get tested. >> reporter: sitting in a campus gym refitted as a covid-19 testing site, plymouth state university president donald burks has been preparing for a thanksgiving break like no other. >> we've got them tested and going back home safely. >> reporter: the new hampshire public university has been testing students and faculty weekly since september. the strategy appears to be working. the school currently has fewer than 20 confirmed active cases, all isolated off campus. >> students have been fantastic through the whole process. >> we will have to adapt this thanksgiving. just like the students have adapted to how they interact with each other. >> reporter: plymouth state recently hosted white house coronavirus response coordinator dr. deborah birx as she toured campuses last month. she also happens to be donald's sister. >> there was a time i called her and said, do you really think we can do this this. >> reporter: she has been focused on speaking directly to students and administrators about the rise of covid-19 cases as colder weather and the holidays approach. >> this virus can spread in among families and friends. if you are -- take your mask off and you're primarily indoors. >> she spent 45 minutes just talking about all the background what she'd learned. >> reporter: college students heading home for thanksgiving are of special concern for dr. birx and other health officials. >> young asymptomatic individuals, the so-called silent spreaders, are fueling the epidemic in this country. colleges have a responsibility to ensure that they don't unwittingly unleash ticking time bombs into the nation's airports, train stations, and thanksgiving dining tables. >> reporter: despite that concern, the cdc hadn't published guidelines recommending against thanksgiving travel until just one week before the holiday. that delay in guidance led to each campus setting their own protocols. some more rigid than others. >> they're all over the map. i think it's a recipe for a very jumbled thanksgiving dinner. >> reporter: new york state's university system will require all of its 140,000 students using on-campus facilities to test negative for covid-19 within 10 days before departing campus. those that test positive must isolate. >> we want to give our families and our students and their families that they're coming over for thanksgiving and other things confidence that we are maximizing all of our public health protection. >> reporter: the university of michigan will also require campus exit tests. >> i think it's a good procedure to make sure everybody stays safe. >> reporter: the university of wisconsin system is mandating three covid-19 tests. one before and two after thanksgiving break. and even encouraging students not to go home at all. >> we normally would have maybe 60 or 70 students stay. we certainly would like to have more stay this time. >> reporter: other schools are taking a more lax approach. both penn state and indiana university are not making testing mandatory for students before leaving campus. and despite rising cases on its campus, arizona state university officials say around half of on-campus students have not complied with random testing. >> should mandatory guidelines be instituted in colleges before students decide to leave for break? >> absolutely. voluntary programs sound wonderful, but they don't work. >> reporter: fortunately, many college students are being extra cautious. >> family's at home, and grandparents are back. i want to make sure i'm cleared before i come back home. a grandfather who made it his mission to bring comfort to everybody else's grandchildren has died. for 14 years, david deutscheman volunteered to cradle sick and premature babies at a hospital? atlanta. a nurse says she never once saw a baby crying in his arms. staff showed their support after learning he had become ill from cancer. >> we love you, mr. david! >> he earned many nicknames over the years, including icu grandpa, and the baby whisperer. he died just 17 days after being diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. david deutscheman was 86 years old. and that is a thanksgiving story. more cnn after the break. ♪ ♪ i see you looking (uh) ♪ i see you looking (na, na, na) ♪ ♪ i see you looking (uh) ♪ i see you looking ♪ watch what i do (camera clicks) ♪ watch what i do ♪ i see you looking ♪ watch what i do! (camera clicks) ♪ watch what i do ♪ i see you looking ♪ watch what i ... do! yoat nature's way, that startsn with quality ingredients. like our sambucus - made from elderberries grown and picked at their prime. choose the way to quality immune support, choose nature's way sambucus. ♪ why georgia will count the state's presidential votes again. plus a judge throws out another of donald trump's lawsuits. one of georgia's republican senate candidates may have covid after campaigning closely with vice president pence and the state's other senate candidate. americans crowd airports for holiday travel as the u.s.